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Simone Biles debunks misconceptions and assumptions about elite gymnasts

"I'm actually not very competitive at all…my goal is never to win—it just kind of happens."

Fernando Frazão/Agência Brasil (Wikimedia Commons)

Simone Biles sets the record straight on gymnastics myths.

Gymnastics is a somewhat unique sport in that the distance between the athletes at the top and the average person is far greater than in many other sports. Most people can run, just not as fast as Usain Bolt. Most people can dribble a ball and make some baskets, just not as well as Steph Curry. Most people can swim, but not nearly as well as Katie Ledecky.

But most people can't do a single flip on a balance beam or swing themselves over a bar once or do even the most basic gymnastics tumbling pass on the floor. Forget about the average person trying to fling themselves over a vault, much less do what Simone Biles or other elite gymnasts can do in any of those events.

Since few are able to do gymnastics at all and even fewer compete at the Olympic level, elite gymnasts are a curiosity for many. To help satisfy that curiosity, Simone Biles sat down with Glamour in 2021 and responded to some of the misconceptions and assumptions people have about top level gymnasts.

Biles, who will be competing with Team USA again in the 2024 Paris Olympic games, broke down the misconceptions into three categories: Sport, Lifestyle and Physique. Here are some highlights from her responses:

"Gymnastics is not a sport."

Umm, what? Biles said she hears this a lot, but pointed out that "every four years, everybody tunes in to watch gymnastics, so it's gotta be a sport at least."

Then she pointed out what makes it not only a sport, but one of the hardest sports in the world. "It's all sports combined in one," she said. "You can't just be fast, you have to have agility, you have to be able to jump, you have to be able to flip, memorize routines—it's kind of all-in-one."

"Gymnasts retire at an early age and have a short career."

At 27, Biles herself has defied the standard retirement age of elite gymnasts, so she may not be the one to come at with this. She pointed out that a lot of gymnasts get college scholarships and then retire around 22 or 23.

"You have to be rich to get into the sport, lessons are expensive."

Biles confirmed, "It is actually a very expensive sport. And it's also year-long. We don't have a season and then you can take a break. And you kind of have to train your whole life for it. So yes, it does get to be expensive.

"You can't start gymnastics later in life."

Biles shared that she started when she was almost 7, which is "late" in the elite gymnastics world. "Usually you start in 'mommy and me' classes or as soon as you can walk," she said.

"You can't be afraid of heights as a gymnast."

"You actually can," said Biles, 'but it doesn't affect you in the gym when you're flipping because you don't notice how high you are, so I feel like that one's sort of a myth." She added that her fear isn't a fear of falling from high up but a fear that she's going to jump from someplace high up. "I don't want to die, I just want to jump off," she said.

"They're not very nice and super competitive in all aspects of life."

"I'm actually not very competitive at all," Biles said. "In a gym or in a competition, my goal is never to win, it just kind of happens. But I also feel like whenever you're at the top everybody preys on your downfall, which is really strange to me."

She shared that her sister did gymnastics until she was around 17. While she was really good, she decided to quit because of the pressure and everyone compared her to her sister. When she would win competitions, people thought it wasn't fair that both sisters would win all the time, and she had enough of it.

"I feel like people also think gymnasts are really mean because most of the time we're so serious you don't get to see our personality," she added.

"All work and no play."

"Yes and no, I guess we can play after work," she said. "I've learned that I have to fuel myself outside of the gym too, whether that's hanging out with family, friends, going shopping or doing whatever. I still have to be happy at the end of the day without gymnastics."

"They have to wake up at 4:00 a.m."

"I don't wake up at 4:00 a.m. I wake up at like 6:15 just because we start practice at 7:00," she said, adding, "If I had to wake up at 4:00 I wouldn't go to the gym."

"They don't have time to take care of their mental health."

Biles shared that she goes to therapy. "I think it should be talked about a lot more, because it's not something to be ashamed or afraid of," she said. "Everybody has something that works for them and that's what I just found works for me."

"They have body image issues."

"I feel like that's not a misconception about gymnasts, I feel like that's everybody in general. Everybody struggles with body image issues, wanting to look different, thinking you're not skinny. I feel like that's everybody in life."

"You have to have a certain body type to do gymnastics."

"Back in the day, everybody had a more slim body and was really flexible and skinny," Biles said. "But now, you can be a little bit shorter and more powerful like me. So, I definitely think it's evolved. So I think that's false, as well."

"I feel like whatever your body type is you just have to be in shape to do gymnastics," she added. "I think it's different now. Everybody thought bar swingers were a little bit taller, leaner. And then if you're a tumbler, you're a little bit shorter and thicker. But now, it's been proven that you can kind of have both body types and do all of it. So, it's doesn't really make a difference anymore."

"They're very flexible."

"No, not all gymnast are flexible," said Biles. "Me and Aly Raisman, we're actually not that flexible for gymnasts because our muscles kind of overlap that. But, we're flexible enough to do what we have to do."

Watch the full video on Glamour's YouTube channel.

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Joy

Jim Thorpe's stripped Olympic gold medals have finally, officially been reinstated

A 110-year wrong has finally been righted.

Public Domain/Wikimedia Commons

Jim Thorpe dominated the competition at the 1912 Olympics in the decathlon and pentathlon events.

Jim Thorpe is widely regarded as one of the greatest athletes of all time, and many would claim he is still the greatest. Britannica describes him as "a marvel of speed, power, kicking, and all-around ability," and he excelled in multiple sports throughout his life. In 1950, he was voted the Associated Press' Athlete of the Half Century.

As a person of Sac, Fox and Potawatomi descent, Thorpe became the first Native American to win an Olympic gold medal for the United States in 1912. He dominated the decathlon and pentathlon events at the Stockholm Olympic Games that year, winning by large margins, but an investigation the following year resulted in him being stripped of his medals.

Thorpe had played semiprofessional baseball in 1909 and 1910, which, according to the stringent rules on only having amateur athletes competing in the Olympics at the time, should have disqualified him. He ended up having the gold medals he clearly deserved to win taken away due to a minor violation of a technical rule that would end up being changed anyway.

Forty years ago, the International Olympic Committee gave shared gold medals to Thorpe's family, but they did not reinstate his Olympic records or name him as the sole gold medalist in the two events he won.

Now the record has officially been corrected.

Bright Path Strong, an organization created to continue Thorpe's legacy of community service, created a petition to have Thorpe's medals and records fully reinstated. (Thorpe's Native name, Wa-Tho-Huk, means "bright path.")

“We are so grateful this nearly 110-year-old injustice has finally been corrected, and there is no confusion about the most remarkable athlete in history,” said Nedra Darling, Bright Path Strong co-founder and citizen of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation, according to the Associated Press.

As it turns out, the silver medalists had never accepted the gold medals they were offered after Thorpe had been stripped of them. Bright Path Strong and IOC member Anita DeFrantz contacted decathlete Hugo Wieslander's family as well as the Swedish Olympic Committee to discuss the matter with them.

“They confirmed that Wieslander himself had never accepted the Olympic gold medal allocated to him, and had always been of the opinion that Jim Thorpe was the sole legitimate Olympic gold medalist,” said the IOC, according to the AP. “The same declaration was received from the Norwegian Olympic and Paralympic Committee and Confederation of Sports, whose athlete, Ferdinand Bie, was named as the gold medalist when Thorpe was stripped of the pentathlon title."

Now the record has been set straight. Thorpe will officially go down in history as the sole gold medal winner of the decathlon and pentathlon in the 1912 Olympic Games.

Darling told Indian Country Today that she called Billy Mills, the Oglala Lakota runner who won gold in the 10,000 meter race in the 1964 Olympics (in one of the greatest upsets in Olympic history), after she heard the news.

“It was emotional," she said. "It was the most beautiful gift I could get to be able to tell him, and I didn’t realize it ’til he just couldn’t speak and I couldn’t speak. He’s been so supportive of what I’ve been doing.”

IOC President Thomas Bach expressed his gratitude to all involved.

“We welcome the fact that, thanks to the great engagement of Bright Path Strong, a solution could be found,” he said. “This is a most exceptional and unique situation, which has been addressed by an extraordinary gesture of fair play from the National Olympic Committees concerned.”

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Joy

Let's remember how hilariously joyous Shaun White was after he first won Olympic gold

via CNN

Shaun White on CNN in 2006.

Back when Shaun White was just 19 he won a gold medal at the Winter Olympics in Turin and quickly became a household name. White, then known as the "The Flying Tomato” due to his red hair, quickly became a household name for his high-flying antics on his board and laid back Southern California cool.

White would go on to win three Olympic gold medals in halfpipe snowboarding and appear in five Olympic Games. He also holds the record for the most gold medals won in the X Games. White recently performed in the 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Beijing where he, unfortunately, didn’t win any medals.

After winning his first gold medal, White appeared on CNN, flashing his hardware and talking about all of the perks that come with his newfound fame. He recalled a recent flight where he was showered with attention from the flight attendants.

White: “[They] had all seen the Games and they were just so excited to see me and they’re like ‘you have the gold?’

And I mean, like, I had unlimited, like, service after that. I was getting drinks and I was getting snacks and I was taking photos in the back with all the stewardesses…”

Interviewer: “Wait a minute. Drinks? You’re 19 years old?”

White: “I’m talking about Mountain Dews, baby.”

It’s unclear whether he was actually served Mountain Dew, a sponsor of his at the time, or if he made the most brilliant recovery in live TV history. But what we do know is that White was jazzed about his incredible accomplishment and watching him celebrate is seriously infectious all these years later.

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Democracy

The Olympics owe athletes and fans a better approach to their drug policies

Wikipedia

Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva.

The Olympics are upon us again and as we all gather around the television, or keep track of the medals won via our mobile device, there now seems to be a bit of a shadow. Not only are athletes having to contend with the COVID-19 crisis and strict protocols, resulting in no fans to cheer them on, and losing some team members to quarantine, they’re also contending with a new doping scandal.

Fifteen-year-old Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva tested positive for a restricted substance, which should have disqualified her from competing. This disqualification would have cost Russia the gold, but as the world awaited the decision, we were left with more questions than answers. Valieva would be allowed to continue to compete.


Last summer we saw a different scenario play out with Sha’Carri Richardson, a young American runner who was poised to medal in the summer Olympics but was disqualified for a failed drug test shortly before the games were scheduled to start. Richardson tested positive for marijuana, which she admitted after finding out her mother died during an interview. The committee knew what transpired that led to the lapse in judgment, and Richardson took accountability for her mistake, yet she was still disqualified in an effort to keep the Olympic games drug-free and the rules fairly applied across the board.

With the news of Kamila Valieva failing her drug test for a substance called trimetazidine, people are scratching their heads, including Richardson. Trimetazidine is a heart medication that can be used as a performance enhancer due to its ability to increase blood flow to the heart, which then pumps more blood to the muscles enhancing one's ability to compete. Richardson posted to Twitter calling out the decision-makers, saying “Can we get a solid answer on the difference of her situation and mines? My mother died and I can’t run and was also favored to place top 3. The only difference I can see is I’m a black young lady.”

While Valieva is young, and the drugs found in her system were likely the result of the adults around her hoping to give her an edge over the competition, it still doesn’t fall in line with the anti-doping rules of the Olympic Committee, yet the Court of Arbitration for Sports has given the green light for Valieva’s continued participation. This decision not only seems to disregard the athletes working to compete in a way that is fair, but also those who have stayed clean of any and all performance-enhancing substances. The decision is also one in stark contrast to the one swiftly handed down to Richardson, so one must ask what the difference could be?

Marijuana isn’t known for enhancing anyone’s ability to do anything other than watch a marathon of your favorite show on Netflix while eating your weight in chips and queso, but that didn’t seem to matter when it counted most for Richardson. This is a tale of two athletes. One, a white child with adults around her likely making the poor decision to violate the anti-doping rules, and the other, a Black young woman who made a poor choice in her grief after she found out she lost her mother from a reporter during an interview on live television. Why is one the exception to the rule?

There seems to be a fairly clear answer to this question, but according to the Court of Arbitration for Sports, it would have caused Valieva “irreparable harm” to be disqualified. If irreparable harm is the factor that keeps Kamila Valieva in the games, then we all owe Richardson a heartfelt apology. Her mother passed away, and she was informed in a way that would’ve crushed anyone, and yet she had to sit out a career-changing and life-altering moment because she grieved in the way that brought her a moment of relief.

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